How we keep warm, part 1

So how do you keep warm in the winter with no city gas and limited electricity, you ask?

We bought a heater that works on natural gas and electricity. So, during the 4 hours-or-so-a-day that we have lights, the top half runs on electricity. The bottom half runs off of the gas bottle in the back. We can fill a 10 liter bottle of gas in the city, and we're not sure yet how long it will last because it hasn't run out yet. We turn the gas on for about an hour before bed to get the room warm, then bundle up and go to sleep. In the morning we turn it on again and eat our breakfast around it on the bedroom floor. If we are home during the day and it is very cold, we will turn it on briefly to take the edge off. The goal isn't to keep the room warm, its just to keep it reasonable. This may have to be combined with layering and occasional jumping jacks. This picture shows the heater during a time when the electricity was working along with the gas...



It does cool off pretty fast though, as the floors and the walls are all very cold. Another thing we did to help keep the heat in was to stuff all the cracks in the window frames with cotton and put plastic over the windows. This is Jen and Ella working on that from last November...


We really can't complain though. This winter has been nothing like last winter. As they say around here: Xudoba Shukur! (Thank God!).